[Vydar_XLIII]

Firstly thank you to the event organizers for being awesome people and putting in all the hard work behind the scenes to make this happen.

Secondly, congratulations to dok for the win.

Thirdly, thanks to Dysole’s Raffle Spreadsheet for some Online-Con dice.

I spend a very long time analyzing what I thought the metagame would be for this format. I want to write up a much longer and in-depth breakdown of my thought process and results. I think my predictions were spot on. Hopefully, it can serve as a springboard for a good discussion on “how to discern a metagame in a new format” and be a resource for everyone. (LMK if you would all be interested in reading that, interest will likely make me write faster). Vegie and dok already described why it was a melee-dominated metagame and I agree with their assessments. My choice of bonding Axegrinders was because I felt dwarves had the edge in most melee matchups. Fearless advantage against the heroes of the Blades and Death Chasers. Attacks per turn advantage against the Death Chasers, Dreadguls, and Romans. I added Kursus as filler to add a special attack and add a threat against clumping armies like the Blades and the Romans. I tried other hero combinations but missed Mogrimm too much to go without him.


Game 1 vs Dysole (2x Gladatrons, 2x Blastatrons, The Varja, Isamu) on Stygean Rift (Kelda, Lodin)

I have very little experience playing with and against Trons. (Yes I see the irony, given my username.) Dysole developed much differently than I expected. She had her Blasts at the edge of their range and had the Glads right in front of them. Not engaging, just taking pot-shots. The Glads didn’t engage first in order to boost the Blasts attacks, they waited until I engaged before they swarmed. Most of you are probably saying, “Duh, that’s how you’re supposed to play them.” It definitely seems obvious now, but I guess I had been playtesting them all wrong. Trons take a certain “finesse,” to use Dysole’s word, to play well. I wasn’t prepared and was easily and soundly overwhelmed. It doesn’t help that the matchup is generally bad for melee into Trons. I definitely made some mistakes mid-late game. Notably a pair of OMs on Kursus that should never have gone on him. The Varja never saw any action. I killed all the Glads and 1 Blast by the time that time was called. I had Mogrimm with a few wounds on him and a single dwarf left. (0-1)


Game 2 vs XthorsavageX (Mok, Axegrinders of Buring Forge x3, Marcu Esenwein.) on Turmoil (Ulaniva, Wannok)

Going into this game, I knew I had the preferable matchup. Mok is huge and so the dwarves get Fearless Advantage and I had an extra squad than he did. I knew I had to keep Mogrimm away from Mok because Tough will do nothing against 7 attack dice. He started the game flying Marcu onto Wannok and then had some of his dwarves hop on Mok’s shoulders and begin to advance. I slow rolled, focusing on the shadow and the roads. I sent 1 dwarf over to marcu and in 2 turns that guy put a quick 5 wounds on Marcu, just shy of not getting the Wannok activation. I put the wound on Kursus, who I then realized, wasn’t needed in this game and could soak a few rounds of Wannok, allowing me to ignore Marcu from then on. The next rounds had Thor advancing his dwarves more before moving Mok up onto the height just outside his start zone. I think he overextended the Axegrinders and I was able to kill them before engaging and attacking Mok 2-3 times a turn. Once Mok was engaged he took out about 2 of my dwarves a turn, but they just kept coming and Mok probably only survived 3-4 turns worth of sustained attacks. From there it was clean up, 5 dwarves in his start zone and Marcu’s last life. (1-1)


Game 3 vs Knight of Scape (Honor Guard of the Blasted Land x5, Warden 816, Guilty McCreech, Isamu) on Stormwall (Valda, Dagmar)

This game was recorded for 10 Points Under, so you all might have a chance to see this one play out. I hadn’t played against the Honor Guard before so I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I was fairly sure I had the matchup advantage, 5 attacks and a d20 roll per turn vs 3 attacks per turn was going to be a hard hill for my opponent to overcome. The Warden and the Protective Repositioning power made the Honor Guard as fast as my dwarves. The first round was a race to Valda. I won initiative and I got there first. My OM 3 was on Kursus. I wanted to put him in a position to threaten the groups that these guys end up in but with the extra 2 move I was actually able to attack the pod of 3 who were closing in on my glyph holder. Sonic Fists killed 2 of the 3 in that group saving my dwarf on Valda. Next OM1 I went for the risky play to sonic fists the start zone. I attacked a group of 4 Guards and Guilty. No kills. Dead Kursus. That miss and lack of Axegrinder reinforcement for 2 turns allowed Knight of Scape to take Valda and hold it for a good portion of the rest of the game. The next couple of rounds consisted of me slowly pushing up towards Valda. I gained about a hex a turn because Mogrimm killed one and then the Axegrinder filled its spot. I came out ahead, likely because my dice were hot. Knight had 3 Honor Guardsmen and his heroes left once I took Valda back. He had Warden and Isamu left when time was called. (2-1)


Game 4 vs vegie dad (Death Chasers of Thesk, Nerak the Glacian Swog Rider, Kuthnak, Me-Burq-Sa, Isamu (dropped)) on Fulcrum

Wow what a game! This one had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. My first decision of this game happened before figures were even set, and its because of the map. Because Fulcrum is the bottleneck that it is, Kursus is much more valuable on this map than on others. In playtesting I could hit 3-4 figures in the center of the board quite frequently. But it depends on the opponent’s army, against 2-3 defense Death Chasers, it’s a no-brainer. Kuthnak was a wild card for me, he had been released last week and I hadn’t gotten any playtesting in with him (my playtesting DC army had James Murphy in his place, for Range and an AOE). Anyways, round 1 the Chasers out-developed me, because that’s what they’re good at. I put Kursus on the 3-hex height outside the start zone just so he could threaten. We traded Orcs for Dwarves with the Orcs pulling out ahead. I put Mogrimm in a bad spot and he fell quickly. Vegie’s dad put Nerak in a bad spot and I surrounded him and killed him in a turn. Once Nerak died, I saw an opening for Kursus. It looked like a better opportunity than it actually was but I got 2 wounds on MBS and killed a Chaser with my OM3. My next OM1 took out 3 chasers with Sonic Fists. Kursus earned his points and swung the game back in my favor. We trade some more figures until its 4 dwarves vs 2 orcs and full-life Kuthnak at the end of the round. It came down to the initiative roll, Vegie’s dad won. Killed 3 dwarves and one of his own with Boiling Blood on OM1 and that was the game. (2-2)


Game 5 vs Boromir96 (Axegrinders of Burning Forge x4, Ulfrid Hornwrangler, Darrak Ambershard)

Another game 5 (almost) mirror match! Another fight over Valda. This time I didn’t over extend to get it first, but took it slow and was able to control it most of the game. Ulfrid blanked on some key defense rolls, disengaged with 1 life left, survived, got Kelda and then blanked 2 more defense rolls. Mogrimm was key this game, Combat Leader allowed me to win 2 extra initiative rolls, never allowing Boromir the chance to swing the momentum. We traded dwarves pretty equally all game. Ulfrid wanted to go after Mogrimm early, I think that would have been the best way for Boromir to swing the game, but I never allowed it. I won with 3 dwarves and an unactivated Kursus left. (3-2)